ANTE TIMMERMANS
Chapter II der Souffleur des ICHTS
14 March – 04 April, 2015
“Description”
Eight large format drawings on wood panel on view in Chapter I expressed Timmermans’ concentration on his very own process of ‘moving standstill’ following the staging of a performative installation titled )pause( presented at Frieze London 2014.
In this solo presentation for Frieze six large text drawings covered the walls of the booth. They referred to the stage directions of the play ‘Waiting for Godot’ by Samuel Beckett – a play in which the two characters wait endlessly for the arrival of someone named Godot. Throughout the entire fair five dancers performed the directions of ‘pause’, understood as a physical and mental state in which each of them had the freedom to choose between standing still or moving on. Sculptural objects referring to this in-between state served as focus point and mirrored the performative installation. )pause( reflected upon the absurdity, the tragedy and comedy of progressive movement during a ceaseless standstill.
The donkey as the ever-working beast of burden is a recurring motive in Timmermans’ works and has appeared in the performance Métro-Boulot-Dodo, where Timmermans walked in a circle wearing a donkey mask, and the on-going work series DRUSBA. With the latter – ABSURD in reverse – Timmermans further develops questions about the nature of absurdity and routine, proclaiming that absurdity can only be countered with absurdity: a consideration that equally influences this ‘moving standstill / La marche de l’àrret’.
While the donkey mask was put away in a plastic bag dangling on one of the four sculptures in the performative installation at Frieze, Timmermans removed the donkey head from the bag as a reaction to and following his very own process of ‘moving standstill’. The drawings on wood panel in Chapter I: ICHTS showed the artist in a dialogue with the donkey head (Ichts, 2015), or his head falling towards the head of the donkey (Die Fälle, 2015). And a small drawing reads ‘Verräter’ [betrayer] with a colourful donkey looking down on the artist’s self-portrait lying on the floor, the mountain referring to Camus’ ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’ in the back.
For Chapter II – Der Souffleur des ICHTS Timmermans takes an active role as ‘Souffleur’. In this performative installation, which fills the entire first room of the gallery, the artist is situated in the prompter’s box of an elevated stage. The airy structure of the stage, made of iron rods and wood panels, allows the viewer to see the Souffleur to some parts, and reveals a collection of stage props: the playwright ‘Waiting for Godot’ in Flemish with most of the text crossed out in thick black, a ladder (another recurring theme in Timmermans’ work) to climb the stage, a megaphone and wedges to create the ‘standstill’. From here the artist not only prompts but also directs the sculptures on stage, most notably the donkey mask enthroned high on a long wooden pole in everlasting power. The stage as a symbol of the theatre of life offers a platform on which the artist investigates his very own ‘moving standstill’ after the experience of directing others to enact their ‘moving standstill’ in the performance of )pause(.
Ante Timmermans (*1976 in Ninove, BE) lives in Zurich, CH and Gent, BE. His work has been the subject of exhibitions throughout Europe and the Americas and includes solo exhibitions at Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (Switzerland) 2012, Musée Jenisch in Vevey (Switzerland) 2012, Kunsthal Sao Paulo (Brasil) 2014, and group exhibitions at CIAP in Hasselt (Belgium) 2013, SMAK in Gent (Belgium) 2012, Aargauer Kunsthaus (Switzerland) 2011 and Kunsthal KAdE in Amersfoort (Netherlands) 2011 among others. He participated in Manifesta 9 in Genk (Belgium) 2012 and represented Belgium at the 13th Architecture Biennale Venice (Italy) 2012. In 2015 he will have major solo exhibitions at Be-Part, Waregem (Belgium) and at the GEM (Gemeentemuseum) in Den Haag (Netherlands).
